Graphic issues

[Haviel71]

I'm having a lot of graphics problems with the game. First, it froze on the start menu, so I uninstalled and reinstalled it.

Now, when I look at a ship's profile, the image is static, and there's a line underneath it that moves. And when I try to view an aircraft's profile, a completely black sidebar appears.
I'm not very familiar with forums and I don't know how to add screenshots to show you what's happening.
Thanks

[MaximKI]

Hey, thanks for the report.

Could you please confirm with us if you enabled the Launch Fix from the game launcher?

On how to upload a screenshot to the forum, when posting a reply - there's a tab called 'attachments' below. Click that and you should see an 'Add Files' button that will prompt you to attach files.

See my screen for example:

Uploading screenshot..jpg (65.69 KiB) Viewed 1122 times

[Haviel71]

Thanks for the reply.
The first time I clicked "Launch Fix," and that's when the game froze, and I had to reinstall it. I didn't click it this second time.

[MaximKI]

Thanks. The black air sidebar you see is working as designed. This is the sidebar used for aircraft.

Regarding the water graphic on the screen - that is certainly interesting. Is this reproducible with other types of ships and in other scenarios?

[Haviel71]

Yes, in every ship I select, and I just test it starting a game in anothers two scenarios (main campaign and teruel) and it's the same.
Should I press Launch Fix again?

[MaximKI]

No need. It's possible there may be a settings or resolution issue.

What is your resolution set to? Are you playing in windowed mode?

[Haviel71]

My monitor max: 3440 x 1440. No windowed.

[MaximKI]

Got it, thanks. Could you please upload the following files for us:

1. DxDiag - see following post on how to get it here: https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=380505

2. Your game's preferences file, by going here: \Matrix Games\War in Spain 1936-39\Assets. Please zip up and upload the 'WISPrefs.dat' file.

[Haviel71]

Let's see if I have done well

[MaximKI]

That's it, thank you.

[potski]

My monitor max: 3440 x 1440. No windowed.

Your monitor is 3440 x 1440, but what settings do you use in the Preferences in the game?

I think the game can't really take advantage of higher resolutions. It uses BMP images for all the map artwork, which are not scalable. I dropped my settings in the game to 1400 x 1050, and use windowed. I found those issues went away with no loss of quality. The game in windowed mode uses a pseudo-full screen effect where you don't see the window title bar and borders. The window title bar is just off the top of the screen, use I-J-K-L to move the window, specifically K moves it down to reveal the title bar, I to move it back up to hide it. On large modern monitors it is really not an issue that the game doesn't quite fill every pixel on the screen. Though you might need to experiment with what works best on what looks like a super-wide wrap-around (really cool!!) monitor

[Haviel71]

Thanks for the reply.
You're right, it's a resolution issue. I've been testing the resolution, and the ship's information panel only works properly when I put it in windowed mode. As soon as I increase the resolution, it has problems.
This is how I've been able to get it working; I can't maximize the screen because the game stays on the left side, and if I move it with the keys you mentioned, it ends up like you see in the picture, with my screensaver in the background.

I thought this game would handle a 3440x1440 resolution without problems, but right now it's not much different from how I play WitP-AE. I'm a bit disappointed, but it is what it is.

Thanks again for the reply.

[User1984]

I am seeing a lot of graphics issues as well. The game locks up in Full Screen Mode. I was able to finally change it back to windowed mode but am still having issues. My display is 1920 x 1080.

Here is a screenshot of a pop up window that is transparent. I didn't even click on anything. Also, why aren't there mouse-over popups for all of the icons at the top of the screen so that the player knows what they are?

My first impression of this game is bad. It seems like another dated Matrix game with poor graphics.

For some reason it seems like pop up boxes are not showing in game. When I Alt-Tab out of the game, I can see the pop ups outside the game as shown in my second screenshot.

[potski]

I am seeing a lot of graphics issues as well. The game locks up in Full Screen Mode. I was able to finally change it back to windowed mode but am still having issues. My display is 1920 x 1080.

Here is a screenshot of a pop up window that is transparent. I didn't even click on anything. Also, why aren't there mouse-over popups for all of the icons at the top of the screen so that the player knows what they are?

My first impression of this game is bad. It seems like another dated Matrix game with poor graphics.

For some reason it seems like pop up boxes are not showing in game. When I Alt-Tab out of the game, I can see the pop ups outside the game as shown in my second screenshot.

No idea why your LCU list is transparent like that in the second screenshot. There are tooltips on the buttons on the top menu bar. But with the LCU list open in its default position they appear behind the LCU list. They should of course always appear in front of it, but just minimise the LCU list or move it to the right, or even just move it about 1cm down the screen and you should see the tooltips.

[Tom_]

There is a similar thread in the Tech support regarding the graphics and transparent boxes.
I'm sure they will fix it when they have enough information to hunt the bug down.

[mrfeizhu]

I am having the same exact problems, play on 4k, its like playing witp-ae. But the problems will be sorted out. There is a manual to read and its not the type of game to be rushed into.

[User1984]

I appreciate the historical data and research that went into this game. However, It is hard to understand why the developers released a 20 year old game in 2026. The GUI is ancient and clunky. They are using .bmp files and old software. The redist files are from like 2010, 2017 and 2019.

I mean come on man, you guys should have modernized the GUI and the graphics!!!

I am running a modern computer with Win 11 and a 9070XT graphics card with 16GB of RAM and the game looks like crap.

Edit: I was able to resolve the transparent windows and pop ups showing outside the game by installing the old -

directx_Jun2010_redist.exe file

This should not be necessary for a game released in 2026!!! Goddamn.

Also, why is the LCU pop up always present? I know it can be minimized but that is clunky. Just give us a button that we can toggle on/off to see the LCU information.

[actrade]

While I will say it more politically correct, I have to admit much of what user1984 is saying is true. No scaling on graphics for country flags, the opening screen when choosing a campaign/scenario is pixelated using 2560x1440 resolution (very common one) and the boxes for LCU are clunky at best. I'm hoping that the AI will make it all worth it since I don't play human opponents, but just at the eye test level, the UI and lack of scaling are pretty disappointing to be sure. I'm hoping the devs work to improve the UI graphic scaling.

[Lobben]

What is currently holding me back from buying the game is the UI. The information load is huge with little regard for the advances in UX done in the last decades.

If this is a new engine, written from scratch without any code from WiP:AE, it's baffeling to create one based on such old technology. It looks like its done in some UWP-framework or something even older.

The fact that it's 32-bit limits the application to 2GB of ram (or 4 if you do some tinkering) which could seriously hurt the planned series of games planned in the future. I see no reason to make it 32-bit other than sticking to an old technology stack, like 10 year old at least. I do a lot of guessing here, but hopefully I make a point even if my guesses are wrong.

The fact that it also looks almost identical to WiP, which is a game released 22 years ago, is underwelming. That game is amazing (or so it seems from a lot of youtube vides!) not because of its precision in presenting the right information to the player, but for it's deep gameplay. A lot of people (the majority perhaps?) need excel sheets and other programs loading the data, to manage all the information.

I'm sorry if I come of as very negative. The game seems amazing in so many ways. It's just frustrating as a fan of the hobby to see the best wargaming companies stuck with these really old technologies. This limits the future development and a lot of problems with depricated libraries not jiving with modern hardware and OS's. So many games look like business software from the late 90s, it scares away a large shunk of players also; that are not afraid of the complexity of the simulation, but of the arcaic software. Having to read 100s of pages of manuals is not everyones cup of tea (it's mine though, love it ).

In the end I'm glad that someone is making games like this; that triumphs over everything else. So I hope you take the critisism in the way it was ment, to be of some use and In no way to be mean or anything. Wish you and the game the best!

[stolowski]

I had so many graphical issues that I'm giving up for the time being and waiting for the first update, I haven't even started the actual campaign. I spent over 1 hour and re-started the game tens of times trying to get an optimal look with 5120x1440 UW monitor but haven't really succeeded; the UI handles different resolutions really bad. It also seems that the map is really meant to be used with the default zoom level - as soon as I zoom in, the map it becomes pixelated. I also saw some graphical glitches - such as map completely disappearing and screen becoming red when zooming in, and a crash. I really didn't expect any of it from this game - and from any game in 2026 for that matter.